Cranberry & White Chocolate Cereal Bars, anyone?
A lot of cereal bars get eaten in our house. I would rather my little ones ate nice snacks and not some additive bar with a bit of cereal in it, which is why I used to buy organic children’s bars (looking at their price, you would think they have gold leaf in them!). Not only were they expensive, but I also found them rather disgusting when I tried them. My children like them, but I would never choose to eat them, so I thought I would try to make our own cereal bars, using white chocolate and cranberries.
I have been making these cranberry & white chocolate cereal bars with the children, changing something here, something here for the past nine months or so and we all love them.
I finally got our white chocolate and cranberry cereal bar recipe absolutely perfect recently.
Crevette has them in his lunchbox, Beanie eats them as a mid-afternoon afternoon treat, I have them with a cup of tea, hubby takes them to work as a snack and we sometimes have them for dessert (why not, hey!).
They are tasty and take minutes to put together.
You can keep them at room temperature in a sealed container for a few days or freeze them for when you have nothing to put in a lunchbox (yours or the kids’).
You can swap the white chocolate and cranberries for whatever you fancy. I tried a triple chocolate and marshmallow combination that was rather moreish!
No Bake Cranberry & White Chocolate Cereal Bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (55g) butter
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey
- 1/3 cup (70g) light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla sugar
- 2 cups (200g) oats
- 1 cup (30g) toasted rice cereal
- 1/3 cup (50g) dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup (50g) white chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla sugar over a medium heat. When it starts bubbling, reduce the heat and cook for three more minutes.
- In the meantime, mix the oats and rice cereal in a large bowl.
- Pour the contents of the saucepan over the dry ingredients, and mix well to ensure the oats and cereal are coated in the sticky mixture. Add the cranberries and stir. Leave to cool slightly for 5 minutes and add the white chocolate chips.
- Pour into a 22 x 17cm (8.5x6.5 inches) rectangular dish and press down so it all sticks together (thickness of about 2cm, or ¾ in).
- Cover and leave to cool at room temperature for two hours before cutting into bars. Store them at room temperature in an airtight container.
Recipe Notes
If your cereal bars are coming apart as you are cutting them, try pressing them down a bit more, and leaving them in the fridge for 20 minutes (do not leave them in there any longer or they will be rock hard!).
Just a short video with Emily from ‘A Mummy Too’ to recap it all:
Save me on Pinterest if you like me!
These look great Mel. The Darling husband attempted to make granola for work recently; these look far easier and scrum my too!
Just thought I’d let you know that the picture showing on recipe of the week is for my Fishcakes, I don’t think they look as tasty as your bars so you may want to change them!;)
Hi Andrea,
Thanks a lot. They are scrumptious! I am not sure what you mean about the picture showing on recipe of the week. I have just had a look, and it is mine. Mel
These sound great. My children love cereal bars but you are never really sure what is in them are you. Will have to give these a try.
The only problem with those is they are so delicious you tend to eat half of the batch yourself. I actually probably had closer to three-quarters this time, but I had to check the recipe was worth sharing, didn’t I? Mel
These are a great snack to take out and your recipe looks lovely – I love the vanilla sugar addition!
Thanks Jenny. The last batch (from Saturday afternoon) was almost devoured before anyone had the chance to have them in their lunchbox! I still managed to salvage one piece for my little man’s lunch, and a tiny one for me! Mel
I’ve been looking for an easy to make cereal bar recipe and will give yours a go….substituting something for the white chocolate (broken toblerone if I’m feeling indulgent)! Looks very moreish and love the idea you can freeze them. Dropping in from #recipeoftheweek.
Thanks a lot Sarah. I am sure you will love them. The Toblerone addition sounds very appealing! Let me know what you thought after making them. Mel
Anything no-bake is right up my alley, and these look absolutely delicious!
Thanks for commenting, they are truly scrumptious! Mel
These cereal bars look totally delicious, this is definitely a recipe I would like to make.
Thanks a lot, Julie, let me know what you thought after trying them! Mel
These look great – love the photos too – makes all the difference having fab photos! Could easily be gluten free and, using hard Stork marge, dairy free too. 🙂 Thank for joining my Free From link up!
http://thereciperesource.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/free-from-favourites-share-your-recipes.html
Hi there,
Thanks a lot. I do try to take nice photos. I find that blogging is actually a great incentive to take pretty pictures I actually enjoy looking at. I was actually thinking of a new version for Jumpy with no dairy. My plan was to try with Pure Soya and dark chocolate instead of white, but I will look into Stork margarine now you have mentioned it, cheers! I might post the “even more free from” recipe in the next few weeks. Mel
Hey hun, these looks amazing, do link up to #tastytuesdays too if you fancy http://honestmum.com/tasty-tuesdays-greek-chicken-casserole/
Hi Vicky,
Thanks a lot, you are always so kind! I thought it would be a bit cheeky to link up to three Linkys… X Mel
Not at all, up to you how many you want to link to and you can add as many entries as you like!
OK, I do not feel so bad now, will link up. Mel
Mwah x
🙂
Wow these look delicious and so easy! I think they’ll be a great thing to make with my toddler, thanks for sharing! #recipeoftheweek
Hi Caroline,
Your little one is going to love measuring the ingredients and doing the mixing with you! Enjoy! Mel
Wow, Mel, these are such a great healthy treat – I made a similar thing today, which I have added to my blog,and it’s certainly gone downwell with my son as an after school snack 🙂 Hope you don’t mind me sharing it here http://www.somethingaboutclairey.co.uk/chocolatey-granotiffjack/
Claire
Thanks Claire, I have had a look at your granola bars – they look scrumptious! No problem about adding your link! Mel
Love this recipe-the pretty food styling and your professional shots-stunning! Would love to have you join #tastytuesdays whenever you can. Thanks for joining!
Hi Vicky,
Thanks. Oh my goodness, you actually wrote “food styling” and “professional shots”, not “professional looking”, which makes me really proud of my photos. I do try hard to take beautiful photos, but until you get feedback, you are never sure they are good enough. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. You really made my evening! Mel
Are you on twitter? Couldn’t find you-I’m @honestmummy
Well… I have actually only just got an Instagram account and Facebook page (both less than a week old), which are already two huge steps towards “blogging for real” in my world (I am such a neophyte!). I have not looked into Twitter yet, but it is on my list. If I was going with all those social media tools, I would not have time for my day job! I have no idea how everyone in the blogging world does it! Mel
Hehe! Twitter is addictive but great way to connect with others and promote your blog! Hope you can join in with #tastytuesdays next week!
I will have to get on it at some point… X Mel
Loooove the fact that they’re no bake. They look delish – great photos. Thanks so much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. I’ve Tweeted and Pinned this post and there’s a fresh linky live now. I would love you to join in x
Thanks! Mel
Like the idea of dairy free with mini marshmallows instead of choc chips. What would you suggest I could use in place of the honey?
You could try smooth peanut butter instead of the honey for a chewy, moreish batch of cereal bars. It will melt nicely and will bind all the ingredients together nicely. Mel
thank you for that. we are nut free but lovers of the new wow butter, truly amazing stuff.
I have never heard of ‘wow butter’, what is it? I am intrigued! Mel
This is definitely something I need to make 🙂
These bars look soooooo tasty
They are, Winnie! I have all the ingredients ready in my kitchen for tomorrow morning. I haven’t made them in a couple of months and I started craving them last week!